Earth Bending

How a Nickelodeon Cartoon Became One of the Most Powerful, Subversive Shows of 2014

A show for kids that aired its final season entirely online may not only be the most subversive television event of the year, but it could have the power to change children’s TV forever. Yes, really.

Last night Nickelodeon aired the finale of the animated spin-off series The Legend of Korra, bringing a nine-year journey that started with Avatar: The Last Airbender to a close. But perhaps “aired” is the wrong word. Because, in an unprecedented move, Nickelodeon pulled The Legend of Korra off TV earlier this year and screened almost the entire last two seasons online only. That’s right, something called The Legend of Korra, an adventure show about teenagers with the supernatural ability to manipulate the elements, pushed the envelope so far it got yanked from TV. And last night, during the finale, creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino shoved that envelope even further. And they shoved it hard. Kids TV may never be the same again.

Here’s how The Legend of Korra, by breaking racial, sexual, and political ground, became the most badass, subversive show of 2014. (Clearly-marked spoilers for the finale at the bottom of the page.)

The Influence of Avatar: Before they took major risks with their teenage characters on The Legend of Korra, Konietzko and DiMartino created a modern animated classic in Avatar: The Last Airbender. (Not to be confused with the M. Night Shyamalan film The Last Airbender, which, everyone agrees, did a fairly clumsy job of capturing the magic of the original series.) The show, which aired from 2005-2008 on Nickelodeon, was a bona fide hit pulling in huge ratings for the network. The spiritual aspect of the show (mixed in with the adventure of its young characters and borrowing directly from Eastern influences) made it tremendously influential with its young (and old) audience. Not only that, but the success of the first series bought creators Konietzko and DiMartino a lot of leeway when it came to their spin-off, which premiered in 2010. It turns out they would need every ounce of it.

Censorship: It’s always tempting to watch something you’re not supposed to, but this week in particular, with its Sony hacks and cinematic censorship, the notion of watching something forbidden feels like an especially political move. The Legend of Korra was never quite forbidden, never completely canceled, perhaps due to that lingering Avatar goodwill. However, during the show’s first season, it aired in a coveted Saturday-morning slot. After killing off a character on-screen in the Season 1 finale, Korra was considered too risqué and adult for the Saturday-morning crowd and was moved to Friday nights. But Korra continued to air dark material. That, coupled with less-than-stellar ratings, an ill-timed leak of episodes, and any number of mysterious behind-the-scenes factors, resulted in the surprising move to online-only Korra. In its final seasons, Korra became too dangerous, too risky for Nick to air. But that outsider status made it downright irresistible to certain viewers. Especially teens.

Racial Representation: The show doesn’t take place in our world, but, as I mentioned before, it has an undeniable Eastern influence. That’s why the mostly white casting in the Shyamalan movie was so controversial. Listen, whatever Korra is, she’s not lily white. And, despite the fact that children’s television is becoming increasingly diverse, a brave, strong heroine who is not Caucasian is still an important factor.

Body Image and Badass Women: It may surprise you to know that, despite the cachet Konietzko and DiMartino had coming off of Avatar (which featured several strong women like Katara and Toph), Korra, with its tough, brash female lead, wasn’t an easy sell. Remember, this may have been a post–Buffy the Vampire Slayer world, but it still pre-dates Katniss fever. Konietzko told NPR:

Some Nickelodeon executives were worried about backing an animated
action show with a female lead character. Conventional TV wisdom has
it that girls will watch shows about boys, but boys won’t watch shows
about girls. During test screenings, though, boys said they didn’t
care that Korra was a girl. They just said she was awesome. . . She’s
muscular and we like that.

But Korra isn’t the only strong, nuanced female in this world. The show is packed with them and, significantly, many of them are mothers or even grandmothers. Heck, some of them are little children. This is a show that celebrates women of all ages.

Women are allowed to be good, women are allowed to be evil, and the final confrontation of the series last night came down to women who were not unlike each other. Two sides of the same coin. In the end, Korra was about struggling with, accepting, and embracing the sides of yourself that make you uncomfortable. (More on that later.) Pretty heavy for a kids show, yeah?

Without Agenda: For all I know, Konietzko and DiMartino are working with some kind of agenda. But if that’s the case, it doesn’t come through in their storytelling, this isn’t some “girls rule, boys drool” story. The men get their time to shine just as much as the women. In fact, Mako, the stereotypical heroic-type lead (he looks like a slender Clark Kent), did get his Big Damn Hero Moment in the finale.

And Bolin, my personal favorite, was ever the beating heart of the series.

Politics and Religion: These aren’t subjects you bring up at a dinner party, let alone in a kids show. But Korra never shied away from modern parallels, and, in fact, leaned into allegories about W.M.D.s (hello Spirit Weapon!), fascism (hello Kuvira!), P.T.S.D., Hitler, George W. Bush, etc. etc. And that’s just the politics. The spirituality, a key element of the show, is even more distinctive. As I said before, this isn’t a show with an agenda. Korra isn’t pushing any specific religion or creed. But it does advocate vague Eastern tenets of balance and mindfulness. Once again, pretty unusual for a kids show.

The Final Envelope: The finale of Korra went further than the show has ever gone before. What follows are some significant spoilers for the very end of the series so leave if you want, but, trust me, you’ll want to stick around for this.

“It’s true what they say” a Korra fan tweeted to me this morning, ”the hero does always get the girl.” The Legend of Korra wrapped up with a big, fat, great wedding between two fan favorites: Varrick and Zhu Li. To use the parlance of the show: they did The Thing.

But the real Thing came in the final moments of the series when our hero, Korra, walked off into the sunset (well, technically, a spirit portal) not with the ever-heroic Mako or the recently-heroic Prince Wu, but with Asami, her close friend. But if you think this final shot was denoting mere friendship, you’re kidding yourself.

The significance of this closing image (a mirror of the kiss between Aang and Katara that closed out Avatar: The Last Airbender) is made all the more important because of how Korra and Asami met. In Season 1 Korra, a bona fide superhero, met Asami, a rich and powerful businesswoman/inventor (think Bruce Wayne), when the two were fighting over a boy. (That would be the Clark Kent-ish Mako.) Bascially, the women were a walking, talking, bending failure of the Bechdel Test.

But over the seasons, a true friendship blossomed between the two characters. And though Konietzko and DiMartino will almost certainly be accused of fan service for pairing Korra off with Asami (their passionate devotees call them Korrasami), you can’t say you didn’t see this coming. The bond between the two women, which overwhelmed their previous attachment to Mako, has been seeded for seasons now.

Konietzko and DiMartino took a tired dynamic between two women and turned it into something fresh and exciting. But just how important can this final shot be? The didn’t even kiss for chrissakes! Well, pretty important. First of all, as I mentioned earlier, a generation of kids have grown up with the world of Konietzko and DiMartino. Someone who is 18 now was 9 when Avatar: The Last Airbender premiered. This series is enormously influential. And, sure, there are shows that are more explicit and progressive when depicting same-sex couples. But those are adult shows.

When it comes to children’s entertainment, that envelope still needs pushing. After-the-fact concessions like Dumbledore was gay, or Ren and Stimpy were gay, have limited value. Adventure Timecertainly makes an effort, and two female lovers from the Japanese show Sailor Moon, who were changed to “cousins” in the Americanized version, are finally coming out of the closet. But American kids’ shows have a long way to go before L.G.B.T. story lines are considered a matter of course. And none of those examples above quite match Korra and Asami’s climactic spirit portal moment.

So that’s how The Legend of Korra, a Nickelodeon cartoon, changed the face of TV last night. Call it groundbreaking, call it earth-bending, call it whatever you like. It was great television.